This invention relates to closures of bunkers for holding refuse and comprises a horizontal, open-topped pressing box disposed beneath a filling hopper and a pressing plunger which is movable longitudinally in the pressing box to feed refuse through an outlet opening of the bunker and, in use, into a container.
Such bunkers are known from German Offenlegungsschrift No. 2,148,333 and are used for transferring refuse brought in by collector vehicles from a limited collection region such as a town, and compacting it into containers, to enable it to be economically transported to dumps or incinerator plants at greater distances away. Economical transportation of the refuse is, however, not merely a matter of the capacity of the containers and vehicles used, but above all also a question of the economics of the transfer technique. One of the requirements to be fulfilled here is that the containers shall be filled as rapidly as possible with the greatest possible quantity of refuse; this last requirement implies, amongst other things, uninterrupted and as far as possible unimpeded operation of the pressing plunger of the bunker which pushes the refuse into the containers.
An uninterrupted operation of the pressing plunger is, however, only possible if sufficient refuse is always available, that is to say if refuse is continuously supplied at a sufficient rate to the filler hopper. This is, however, not the case with the known bunker, so that the very small buffer of refuse above the pressing plunger is already used up before one changeover of the refuse collecting vehicle delivering the refuse has been completed. But even if appropriate measures were taken to provide a sufficient volume of refuse as a buffer above the pressing plunger, difficulties would occur with the known bunker due to refuse jamming in the vicinity of the outlet opening.
The properties of the refuse have a particularly disadvantageous effect when transfer loading is effected by means of known devices. The refuse, which is constituted basically of household rubbish, bulky waste and industrial waste, forms a cohesive, heterogeneous mass as a result of matting and clinging together of certain constituents, such as highly elastic textiles, ladies stockings, pieces of wire, plastics sheets, computer tapes, twigs and branches, and this mass has to be rammed into the container. It frequently occurs that when filling of the container has been completed, because of the impossibility of metering the quantity of refuse in the hopper so that after the last stroke of the plunger the pressing box is empty, a continuous bridge of refuse extends between the container and the bunker, with the result that, when the container is moved away from the bunker, refuse is pulled both out of the container and out of the bunker and is scattered on the ground. This is unpleasant and undesirable from many aspects, since in the first place it is difficult to close a door of the container tightly and securely due to the refuse hanging out therefrom, and secondly the refuse which has fallen out quickly accumulates to such an extent that it constitutes a hazard to the environment and also impedes the container traffic. Finally, it is also difficult to connect an empty container automatically in a sealed manner to the bunker, when refuse is hanging out of the outlet opening.